Feedback: Top Reader Comments of the Week — July 28, 2018

Even regular readers of K-Var‘s The Muzzle Flash can’t read or respond to all of the reader comments, so we have started a new weekly feature recapping a sampling of the most active, interesting, or on occasion, randomly selected comments from the previous weeks. This will allow you to stay up to date on all of the latest action in the outdoor community. Feel free to respectfully respond to fellow readers comments to continue the debate and reinforce similar beliefs.

Reader Comments From Previous Weeks

I normally don’t open carry just to avoid the stares and worried looks you get, not to mention the inevitable visit from store security or the local p.d. asking you to leave because people are nervous…

I’m a L.E.O. and always carry when off duty but the only time I open carry I’m in uniform on the job. I hate to sound critical of those who open carry but in my humble opinion it makes no sense whatsoever. Actually to me I can’t help but feel the open carry mode is a bit stupid. You open yourself to what the author above was subjected to and so very much more.

Open carry frightens those who know little or nothing about firearms or self defense. Business owners tend to be uneasy while your in their stores, bank tellers are so nervous they can’t work and I can go on and on.

But the biggest factor I take into consideration is you 100% loss any tactical edge you may have had. Thankfully this is not in the news each day but think of it this way; you are open carry – you go in the convenience store for a pack of gum, your at the counter facing the clerk and the guy behind you is a meth head and he is broke but he has a gun in his waistband under his shirt. He may think your an off duty cop or maybe your a wannabe cowboy hero – either way he needs to rob the store so while your back is to him he draws and puts on in the back of your head. Now he robs the store, takes your sidearm and wallet and strolls out of the store and disappears.

Keep you edge, stay alive, carry concealed. Even if this scenario does not occur you still are not sending fear into the minds of the liberals who hate you and your gun anyway. And…………. it may save your life and allow you to possibly save someone else.

I have owned and used all kinds of firearms in my lifetime. I still own my first rifle/shotgun..Savage 219/220 that my Grandfather gave me. I am 70 now. I NEVER sell a firearm.

What I DO NOT understand about waiting periods except that time that is needed for PICS. Here are my thoughts on the waiting period… If you are dead set on committing a crime..

1) and you already own a firearm… why buy another… You can use one already in your possession.
2) if determined… there are means to “purchase” a firearm illegally. The Bad Guys do it ALL the time.
3) “Beg, borrow or steal” is another methods.

This is why I think that 72 hour “waiting period” is fairly useless…

And HOW IN HELL did anyone come up with “save an estimated 1,700 lives annually”?

If bad oral hygiene affects the heart.. how many lives are saved annually just by brushing your teeth??? Hmmmm…

And like what was previously noted.. Knives DO the job as well, just more personal. Will we get to the point of a waiting period to buy battery acid? Seems Great Britain has that issue as we speak. So..for me.. a NO beyond the PICS ( Pennsylvania Instant Check System… for those from Rio Linda, CA.)

I don’t personally open carry, but I think placing fear into the minds of the liberals is a good thing. In my opinion I’m more concerned with the person carrying a concealed pistol not an open carried pistol. The person carrying a concealed pistol may be a criminal, but it is very unlikely that the person with the open carried pistol is. I see a person with a gun and they are on my threat radar until I can discern if they are intending me or mine harm.

After over 40 years in the military, and as a civilian police officer, I lean towards the 870, simplicity and versatility. For home, hunting, fishing, hiking & range (I’m retired now, so I don’t use it for work anymore).

As I said above to someone else – How are people to become less nervous if people don’t open carry to desensitize them? It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Also, the idea of a tactical advantage to concealed carry is a myth. Action beats reaction every time. Further, I’ve yet to find an instance where a person was targeted for shooting by criminals simply because they were open carrying.

You should not have to be afraid to enter you’re own property, home or business. This is the type of stuff they should teach in school, if you want to rob, burglarize or home invade someone be prepared to to be worm food.

The idea of a waiting period is a good concept if a person is emotionally wound up. It allows a time for calm reflection on ones actions, accommodates planning and weighing good versus bad choices. It is hard to imagine a licensed gun dealer being unable to perceive an emotionally over-wrought customer trying to buy a weapon, given this atmosphere of SUE, SUE society we live in now. I don’t see that any criminal activity couldn’t withstand the extra time for planning, if they intended to legally purchase the weapons. It looks like another way to punish law abiding citizens who want to be able to exercise their “unalienable rights.”

This whole issue is a very difficult thing. Yes, it would be great if shootings could be stopped before they happen, but there can also be great abuses of rights with the possibility of the government taking away someone’s gun rights (and possibly other right in the process, maybe like a prohibition for a person to also own other weapons or perhaps body armor). Having worked for a government regulatory agency for years, I know bad things happen because government agencies are made up of people who do not become saints nor wise men upon being hired into the government. Some get the power craze and let their self love take over their judgment. Some let their own personal agendas govern how they do their work and some liberal anti-gun person could use this as a way to gradually take away every gun right they encounter.

Another thing we all know that some use the government to get revenge on their enemies. I could easily see someone, say in a divorce, making up some claim about their estranged spouse being a great danger.

I recently had a business dispute with the management of a company that I knew was violating several ordinances and also was doing fraud on unemployment insurance. I did some complaints and am sure they had some rough times over that. I found out they now are telling people they are afraid I will come in and shoot the place up. This is exactly an example of what can happen when the government looks at taking away gun rights. People will use false claims as a means of getting revenge on their enemies. And who knows what government idiot will gladly go along with it to feel “proactive” and “conservative.”